Saturday, May 24, 2025
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Despite an initial pause, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is now instructing all Defense Department civilians to comply with an Office of Personnel Management email directing them to detail five things they accomplished at their jobs in the past week.
“You will receive an email on Monday, March 3, 2025; reply to that email and cc your supervisor within 48 hours,” Hegseth said in a department-wide memo.
The submissions, which should exclude classified or sensitive information, will be “incorporated into weekly situation reports by supervisors.”
Failure to comply with the OPM directive, Hegseth said, “may lead to further review.”
Employees who are on leave or do not have access to email for a “valid reason” must comply within 48 hours of regaining access.
“Managers of those who do not regularly work in office settings with access to email, e.g. warehouses and shipyards, should address directly with their employees,” the memo said.
"The civilian workforce remains vital to the Department's mission, and your critical contributions support our renewed focus on DOD' s core warfighting objectives under President Trump' s leadership," the memo adds.
The OPM productivity emails, which have been directed by the “Department of Government Efficiency,” were first sent out Feb. 22 but DOD civilians were advised by the Pentagon's Office of Personnel and Readiness to ignore the request.
Hegseth, in a video message released on Sunday, said civilians will now be expected to comply.
"Our civilian patriots who dedicate themselves to defending this nation working for the Department of Defense are critical to our national security," Hegseth said. "As we work to restore focus on DOD's core warfighting mission under President Trump's leadership, we recognize that we cannot accomplish that mission without the strong and important contributions of our civilian workforce."
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is the public face of the DOGE effort, shared Hegseth’s video on X.